World Notes THE VATICAN

He was nothing if not even-handed. In a 20,000-word encyclical letter, Pope John Paul II last week blasted both East and West for an ideological rivalry that has created a "direct obstacle" to healing the ills of the Third World. That, said the Pontiff, amounted to nothing less than a "betrayal of humanity's legitimate expectations." The document, titled Sollicitudo Rei Socialis (The Social Concerns of the Church), contains some of the most sweeping social pronouncements the Pope has yet made. It was issued as an updating of Pope Paul VI's influential 1967 encyclical Populorum Progressio (The Development of Peoples).

Though normally regarded as anti-Communist, the Polish Pope in this instance was equally critical of capitalism and Marxism. Each, said the Pontiff, "harbors in its own way a tendency toward imperialism" and employs "structures of sin" in seeking wealth and influence in the world's poor nations. What they desperately need, said he, is "impartial aid from all the richer and more developed countries."